REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

India's largest bookstore chain Crossword released its annual list of the bestselling books of the year. Keep clicking to find out what India has been reading this year.

Crossword's list of the bestselling books across their stores and website has thrown up an eclectic mix of genres and authors. In the pages to follow, we bring you the top five books (in ascending order) each from Indian and international fiction to have topped the sales in Crossword. Read on

Asura: Tale of the VanquishedAnand Neelakantan

You've probably read Ramayana ten times over but Anand Neelakantan's book offers a slightly different take. Asura: Tale of the Vanquished tells the story of the epic from the point of view of its villain, Ravana.

Neelakantan describes Asura as 'the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed outcastes of India for 3000 years'.

REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

An aspiring John Grisham of financial thrillers, Ravi Subramanian is the author of four bestsellers -- If God Was A Banker, I Bought The Monk's Ferrari, Devil In Pinstripes and The Incredible Banker -- before he wrote this one .

The story of his latest, The Bankster, is set in the fictitious Greater Boston Global Bank (or GB2) where a series of murders rocks its plush corridors.

Karan Panjabi, a reporter and a former banker decides to investigate and realises to his horror that there is much more than what meets the eye.

REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

Poet Jeet Thayil made his debut as a novelist with this book that found its way to the shortlist of the Man Booker Prize 2012.

Nacropolis narrates a hallucinatory tale set around a Bombay opium den (Thayil refuses to call the city by its present name -- Mumbai) and follows a set of fascinating characters through whose lives and times shows how the city transforms itself.

The Guardian describes Narcopolis as 'a blistering debut that can indeed stand proudly on the shelf next to Burroughs and De Quincey'.

REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

The worldwide publishing phenomenon, Fifty Shades of Grey tells the story of Anastasia Steele and her (ahem) passionate love affair with a successful entrepreneur Christian Grey.

Fifty Shades is the first of a trilogy of erotic novels written by EL James and has sold over 65 million copies worldwide setting the record as the fastest-selling paperback of all time beating even the Harry Potter book series.

REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

A 'new' Orhan Pamuk novel from almost 30 years ago, the English translation of his 1983 Silent House is the second most popular book in the international fiction gendre being sold at Crossword.

Silent House is Pamuk's second novel after Cevdet Bey and His Sons spans a week in the life of three siblings visiting their grandmother in Cennethisar, a small town near Istanbul that is gathering in the shadow of the impending military coup of 1980.

Click here for Rediff RealTime updates on Orhan Pamuk and here to purchase his books.

REVEALED: The books India read in 2012!

The Time Keeper tells the story of Father Time, the first man on earth to count the hours and who is punished for trying to measure time. Finally, he is given one chance to redeem himself by teaching two people the true meaning of time.

A compelling tale of the first man on earth to count the hours, The Time Keeper comes from Mitch Albom, author of the acclaimed books Tuesdays with Morrie and Five People you meet in Heaven and is a heartfelt novel that will make you want to reconsider your notions of time and how you spend it.

Click here to purchase copy of The Time Keeper and here for other Mitch Albom books.